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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  10. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. face — to point toward
  3. field — for sport
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. degree — from a university
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. field — a subject
  8. snap — to click
  9. root — the cause
  10. lie — an untruth
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. squash — the sport
  13. degree — an amount
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. squash — to crush
  16. face — to confront
  17. face — part of the head
  18. bat — the animal
  19. root — of a plant
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. root — of a word
  23. lie — to recline
  24. degree — temperature

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com